Brush makers show thread. Razor handles also welcome.

[GAW9576]

I finally got inspired to make two shave brush handles for myself. Of the many shave brush handles I've made I've only kept four for myself. Two of which I no longer have. I've had two cow horns I acquired from a friend for quite a while. He butchered one of his cows and saved the whole head for me. I went over and removed the horns and cleaned them myself. Not the easiest process if you aren't used to that sort of thing. A horn handle brush has been high on my want list for a very long time so it was worth the effort. One thing I had to figure out was a way to make the top of the wood stepped to fit up inside the bottom of the horn. It was important to be sure that the seam would be as tight as possible. Everything worked out fantastically. I picked Cocobolo for the one on the right. I've used Cocobolo many times and it is one of my favorites. The base wood on left is Lignum Vitae, also called Guayacan or Iron wood which is know as the hardest wood in the world. This was my first time working with Lignum Vitae. It is definitely hard and even this piece I've had for many years had a fair amount of natural oils in it. I definitely look forward to using it more. Boar is most likely going into the left which is a little bigger diameter but shorter. Horse is the most likely candidate for the one on the right. So now that I've made two handles for myself I just need to make a final decision on those knots.

Very beautiful, Greg! (smiling face with heart eyes emoji here) How long have you been working on this project?

I can imagine the challenge of getting a tight fit between the two different materials. You mention natural oils; are these the natural colors of both woods? While the iron wood appears to be smooth, the cocobolo appears to have a subtle texture. Is this natural, or did you create it? It will be great to see them with knots and being displayed in your SotD images!!!

Although the finsh I used did darken them slightly these are the natural colors of the wood. Lignum Vitae is actually considered the hardest wood in the world from what I've read. It is also used widely in the Hydro industry as a shaft bearing material. I believe I read some wind turbines and other industries also use it for bearing/bushing surfaces. Also I read that some submarines had bushing blocks made out of it. I believe it was for the propeller shafts. It's extremely durable and the natural oils in the wood self lubricate in those situations. 
It took part of a day each for the initial shaping and fit up of the two pieces. Then I used two part epoxy to bond the wood to the horn. Let set overnight to dry then the finish work was done the next day. So about a full day each. The wood on both was shaped from a block of the wood. So the current shape was all done using a band saw for rough shaping and then a flap disk to sand them to final shape, then hand sanding to get things smooth and pretty. The  Cocobolo does have facets on the wood that I intentionally made. The Iron wood one also but I made them much more subtle on purpose.